The Secretariat of ICHA 2012 Opened

National Fisheries Research & Development Institute(NFRDI) which is located in Busan, Rep. of Korea and Gyeongnam Province, co-host of ICHA(International Conference on Harmful Algae) 2012 held an opening ceremony of the secretariat of ICHA 2012 in NFRDI on July 22, 2010.  

The secretariat will be supported and funded by the government of Gyeongnam Province and headed by Dr. Kim Hakgyun, chair of local organizing committee of the 15^th International Conference on Harmful Algae in 2012.

The secretariat will establish and implement a comprehensive plan for successful hosting of the conference and carry out all the responsibilities to prepare for the event.

The harmful algal bloom recently occurs on the coasts of equator to mid-latitude area, causing various socioeconomic issues worldwide. The bloom results in huge damage on fish farms in Asian countries while food-poisoning in European countries, threatening public health. To tackle those problems, many countries are making significant investments on research on monitoring on and countermeasures against the red tide.

Meanwhile, considering that the same species of algae is making bloom crossing national borders these days, it became desperate that the global community should get together to respond to the phenomena.

To this end, the international conference on harmful algae was first held in Boston, Massachusetts in November 1974 to discuss on the resolutions to the problem and the hosting country was decided by an open election in which member countries voted for a nation who made the most contribution to research on the harmful algae bloom. South Korea has been participating in the biannual conference since the 5^th ICHA held in the U.S in October 1991.

ICHA, which is rotating Europe and Asia to be hosted, will be held in the island of Creta, Greece in November 2010 for the 14^th gathering.   

In Asia, Japan and Hong Kong were elected for the host country for 7^th ICHA in 1995 and 13^th ICHA in 2008, respectively. South Korea was voted for the host of 15^th ICHA at the 13^th conference. The 15^th ICHA will be held in Changwon, Gyeongnam province in 2012 under the coordinated organization of NFRDI, Gyeongnam province and Korean Society of Harmful Algae.

The 15^th ICHA which is expected to be attended by 800 participants from 50 countries will attract the world’s attention to Korea along with Yeosu Expo 2012, another global event held in Korea.